A study on health status of women faculty in Madurai

Conduct of socioeconomic survey

Socio–economic factors profoundly affect health status. Ethnic background and educational level of members of the household influence overall food availability and food choices. Levels of income also influence the diet (Rolfes et al.,1998).3 With the help of the Questionnaire, socio-economic details such as type and number of members of the family, age, educational background, economic status and monthly expenditure, marital status, religion, type of house they lived were collected. Information about life style habit such as exercise pattern, frequency of beverages consumed was elicited for all the 50 women faculty using an interview schedule. The details of family medical history, frequency of diseases, symptoms were also recorded.

Lifestyle modification

The World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health have recommended that comprehensive program of lifestyle modification is considered as the first option. Lifestyle modification, also referred to as behavioral weight control, includes 3 primary components: diet, exercise, and behavior therapy.

Chart 1

Assessment of socioeconomic and health status of women faculty

Type of the family

Type of family of the selected women faculty is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 1

Type of family

In the present study, the data gathered from 50 women faculty revealed that majority of the women faculty belonged to nuclear family system when compared to joint family system. On an average 60 per cent were in the nuclear family and 40 per cent were in the joint family system. The present study is in tune with the changing trend of family system in India. Also the technological growth due to industrialization leads to the disruption of joint family system in India. In search of better employment opportunities people tend to break away from the traditional joint family and move towards cities and towns. Revealed that more than 80 per cent of families in India are of nuclear type now a days (Ashwani, 2011).4

Number of members in the family

Details on the Number of members in the family of the women faculty are presented in Figure 3.

Figure 2

Number of members in the family (N-50)

In the present study, there were only two members in 5.6 per cent of families, three members in 14.3 per cent of families, four members in 42.9 per cent of families, five members in 22.9 per cent of families, more than five members in 14.3 per cent of families respectively.

Age wise distribution

Age wise distribution of the selected women faculty were categorized and tabulated in Table 1.

Among the 50 women faculty surveyed, the above table indicates that 36 per cent of them were in the age group of 25-34 years and 58 per cent were in the age group of 35-44 years and 6 per cent in the age group of 45-54 years respectively.

Educational background

The educational background of the selected women faculty was recorded into three categories. They are as follows: completed post graduate, master of philosophy and doctorate levels. The educational status of the women faculty is depicted below in Table 2.

With regard to the educational background among the selected women faculty 10 per cent of were postgraduates, 21 per cent of them had completed their M.Phil, 24 per cent were received their doctorates.

Marital status

Marital status of the selected subjects in the present study was given in Figure 4.

Figure 3

Marital status

It was noted from the above table and figure that 88.6 per cent of women faculty were married and remaining 11.4 per cent were unmarried.

Religion

Religion of the selected subjects in the present study was given in Figure 5.

Figure 4

Religion

It was noted from the above figure that 51.4 per cent of women faculty belong to the religion christianity and remaining 48.6 per cent belongs to hinduism.

Type of House

Type of House where the selected women faculty lives is presented in Figure 6.

Figure 5

Type of house

The Figure 6 indicates that 57.1 per cent of the women faculty lives in rented houses and remaining 42.9 per cent of them lives in own houses.

Economic status

Monthly income of the selected women faculty in the present study was categorized according to 11th five year plan technical report (2007-2012) income classification and is given in Table 3.

It was noted from the above table that 4 per cent of women faculty belongs to Lower income group and majority 64 per cent were in the Middle income group and 32 per cent were in the high income group.

Monthly expenditure pattern

Figure 7 gives the details of monthly expenditure of the women faculty.

Figure 6

Monthly expenditure pattern

In the present study, all the families spent a major part of their income on food. Nearly, 45.7per cent of the income was spent on food. While 24.9 per cent of income was spent on house rent/ home loans and the same per cent of income for education too. On the whole, 2.9 to 2.8 per cent of income was spent on various heads of expenditure namely, medicine, paying of loan, debit in bank. This tunes with study of Premakumari et al., (2011)6 where 58.8 per cent, 13.4 per cent, and 0.8 per cent of income was spent on various expenses namely, food, maintenance of household /repair work, and debts.

Exercise pattern

Physical exercise includes recreational or leisure-time physical activity, transportation (e.g walking or cycling), occupational (i.e. work), household chores, play, games, sports or planned exercise, community activities and exercise, in the context of daily life (WHO, 2013).7 Moderate exercises includes walking briskly, climbing steps, gardening, walking short distances, bicycling, yoga and playing with children. Vigorous exercises includes running/jogging (5 miles per hour), bicycling (more than 10 miles per hour), swimming (freestyle laps), aerobics, walking (4½ miles per hour), weight lifting (vigorous effort), competitive sports, and heavy yard work such as digging, cutting wood (ICMR, 2010).8

The exercise patterns followed by the selected obese subjects were given below in Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10.

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Physical activity helps to burn off excess fat. Regular physical activity combined with a healthy diet is the best way of healthy living. From the selected 50 women faculty 34.3 per cent were not doing any exercises due to lack of time and their inability to adopt heavy physical activities. Among the subjects of those who were practicing regular exercises it was observed that 33.3 per cent adopted light intensity exercise for less than 15 minutes and 37 per cent of them were doing moderate intensity exercise for30 minutes. But only 57.7 per cent of the them are walking and 26.9 are practicing yoga as their regular physical activity.

Strong evidence demonstrates that compared to less active obese subjects individuals who are more active have lower incidence of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon and breast cancer and depression. They are likely to have less risk of a hip or vertebral fracture, to exhibit a higher level of cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness and are more likely to achieve weight maintenance to have a healthier body mass and composition (WHO, 2013). Overall, people who do the recommended levels of physical activity can reduce their risk of premature death by 20-30 per cent (www.patient.co.uk).

Frequency of Bevarages Consumption

Figure 11 gives the frequency of Bevarages consumed by the women faculty.

Figure 10

Frequency of bevarages consumption

Data collected regarding the beverage consumption pattern of the selected women faculty revealed that majority of them consume tea. About 45.7 per cent of them drink tea, similarly 20 per cent of them drink coffee and 25.7 per cent consumed milk and remaining 8.6 per cent consumed other bevarages. None of them had natural fruit juices and aerated bevarages regularly.

Personal history

The personal history of the subjects includes various health problems faced by them such as obesity, asthma, angina, blood pressure, high cholesterol, epilepsy, arthritis, thyroidism, diabetes, etc. The personal history of the subjects was tabulated in the Table 4 and Figure 12, Figure 13.

Figure 11

Figure 12

From the Table 4 it was shocking to note that nearly 21.3 per cent of them had high blood cholesterol levels. Among the selected subjects 25.4 per cent were having high blood pressure levels. Low blood pressure was observed among 7.4 per cent of female. Diabetes which is said to be the major health problem among obese individuals was observed among 19.4 per cent. In the order of 2.3 per cent of female suffered from thyroidism and 4.9 per cent of female suffered from arthritis. Meagre percentages of female were suffering from epilepsy. From the data gathered it was observed that high blood cholesterol was more prevalent among the selected subjects.

Overweight individuals also had higher risk for diabetes and hypertension and those with morbid obesity had the highest risk. As there is a significant linear relationship between body weight and these two diseases, control of excess bodyweight is important for their prevention and treatment (Pappachan, 2011).9 The health consequences of obesity are many and varied ranging from an increased risk of premature death to severe non-fatal but debilitating complaints that have an adverse effect on quality of life (WHO, 2013).

Type of treatment

The type of treatment undertaken by the obese subjects was given below in Table 5.

Various types of treatment were undertaken by the women faculty if they have any health risks. Among the women faculty 56.2 per cent preferred allopathic treatment, whereas only 9.8 per cent preferred homeopathy and nearly 5.1 per cent preferred ayurveda. It was surprised to note that none of them follow unani and naturopathy. Though varied forms of medicine are available with little side effects, people don’t try them due to lack of clinical trials and therapeutic proof. Twenty seven per cent were not taking any type of treatment.

Signs and symptoms

The Table 6 highlights the clinical signs and symptoms.

Among the selected female subjects, 7.9 per cent were having fatigue, 23.1 per cent suffer from shortness of breath, 17.2 per cent had backache and 30.1 per cent have weakness, It was heart-warming to note that 17.7 per cent did not have any of the above symptoms.

Family history of the selected subjects

Table 7 highlights the family history with reference to specific health problem.

Obesity is a complex disease resulting from the interactions of a wide variety of hereditary and environmental factors. The family history depicts the risks or complications of the first degree or second degree relatives of the selected obese subjects. The family history may have an important role in determining the occurrence of obesity and other disorders among the public.

Out of the total 50 subjects 12.3 per cent of their father, 16.7 per cent of their mother, 15.7 per cent of sisters and 23.1 per cent of brothers were obese. The hereditary factor doesn’t stop with the parents but continues further; also 10 per cent of obese subjects had obese grandparents. Similarly they also suffered from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, strokes and cancer but their percentages were very low. The data gathered concluded that hereditary is playing a vital role for the precipitation of obesity among the younger age groups.

Studies that have focused upon inheritance patterns rather than upon specific genes have found that 80 per cent of the offspring of two obese parents were obese, in contrast to less than 10 per cent of the offspring of two parents who were of normal weight (Yang et al., 2007).10